The era of the International Space Station (ISS) is coming to a close. In the near future, NASA plans to bring down the station in a controlled deorbit. The end of the ISS will leave a large gap in human spaceflight, although the Chinese Tiangong space station is currently active. Still, to make a space pun, nature abhors a vacuum. Multiple companies are actively working on creating the next generation of crewed space stations to maintain a human presence in space. Of critical importance, these will be privately owned and operated by a variety of commercial entities. This represents a significant departure from government owned and operated space stations of the past, such as Skylab or the ISS. Here are some updates on the key players in this rapidly developing field.
Vast
Vast, located in Long Beach, California, has formed a close partnership with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Vast has plans for both simple and complex space station designs and is clearly aiming at working with private industry. Their initial offering is known as Haven. Haven is somewhat reminiscent of early Russian Salyut space stations in that the entire station is placed into low-Earth orbit by a single rocket, in this case a Falcon 9 launch vehicle. Once in orbit, a separately launched Falcon 9 with a Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying up to four astronauts would dock with Haven for a stay of up to 30 days. It’s not clear who Vast is targeting for stays aboard Haven, as the company’s website seems to by trying to appeal to both potential space tourists as well as those interested in performing medical or scientific research in orbit. Haven promises round-the-clock access to Wi-Fi (via SpaceX’s Starlink satellites) and at least one large observation window. Haven can potentially be rotated to produce artificial gravity as well. Vast hopes to start Haven launches in 2025.
Vast is also planning to build a much large space station, known as Haven-2. The primary module is a larger version of their Haven station, with two docking ports, significantly more volume, and several large windows. Vast plans to ultimately link multiple Haven-2 modules in a row. Beyond this, Vast hopes to one day develop a station made of eight Haven-2 modules, built around a central hub.
Blue Origin
Never one to be left out, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is developing its own private space station, known as Orbital Reef. The recipient of $130 million in the form of a NASA development contract, Blue Origin is thinking big. Along with several corporate partners including Sierra Space, Orbital Reef is planned to be a large facility, although exact dimensions are not available at this time. Constructed from many different modules that could be launched aboard Blue Origin’s New Glenn heavy-lift launch vehicle (which has yet to fly itself), Orbital Reef would contain a mixture of areas for researchers to work as well as for space tourists. Interestingly, some of the modules planned for Orbital Reef would be inflatable, thus reducing launch mass, simplifying construction, and allowing for the creation of large-volume modules. Blue Origin states that it plans to provide crew and cargo transportation via Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, although recent events may force a rethinking of that plan. Blue Origin also hopes to have Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane (which has yet to fly) visit Orbital Reef. Various module configurations are available online and it’s not clear which would be the final form of the station. It seems likely that some modules could be moved from one location in the station to another to allow different configurations after initial assembly.
Related: A look at New Glenn: Blue Origin’s heavy-lift booster rocket
Axiom
Axiom is a large, Houston-based, private spaceflight company. Axiom has organized three private spaceflights to the ISS with a planned fourth mission to follow. These flights used a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule launched by a Falcon 9 rocket.
When it comes to space stations, Axiom has several irons in the fire. In 2020, NASA awarded Axiom $140 million to develop a commercial module to be part of the ISS. The segment, known as Axiom Station, would potentially serve as a place for both paying space tourists and commercial astronauts who would be conducting research in the microgravity environment. Axiom Station is currently under construction in Turin, Italy, by Thales Alenia Space, a private manufacturing company.
Given that Axiom Station would be added to the ISS relatively close to the end of the overall station construction, Axiom has further planned to then potentially use the module as the base block for their own, independent, private space station or possibly build a second, identical module to serve as the base block. Axiom is also looking at adding other modules to the ISS, some of which could potentially be repurposed into parts of a future independent Axiom station. Some of these planned modules include an inflatable structure, an additional habitation module, a research module, and a large power transfer module connected to an enormous solar array. In theory, all of these modules could interconnect in space and serve as a large, independent, private space station.
Axiom has what can only be called ambitious plans, and they have made good progress on their first module. Their completed flights to the ISS give them “street cred” that many other private spaceflight companies do not have.
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin, in partnership with Nanoracks and Voyager Space, is working to develop its own free-flying commercial space station, known as Starlab. Starlab is relatively early in its development, and the design specifications for the station have changed over time. Currently, Starlab is envisioned to be two modules. The first is an unstaffed service module that will provide propulsion and power for the entire station via a large solar array. The second, tentatively called the habitation module, is where astronauts would live and work. In some literature about Starlab, the habitation module has been reported to be inflatable. Unlike other private modules or space stations, Starlab is being planned as a payload for SpaceX’s Starship/Super Heavy launch system given its proposed large size and diameter.
The future is now
Given all this development of private space stations, one cannot but help to recall the famous scene in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey where, en route to the Moon, a commercial Pan Am clipper spaceplane flight passes three other space stations on its way to a large, rotating commercial space station (complete with a Howard Johnson’s restaurant). Kubrick may not have been too far off of the mark.
It seems likely that one or more of these commercial space stations will make it to orbit. If that comes to pass, it will usher in a completely new era of human spaceflight. Private companies will ferry private astronauts and researchers to private space stations, without government ownership or daily oversight of their activities (although some overall regulation is likely). Such a reality may come sooner than we think, and will likely only increase the pace of space station growth and development.
